Tech tips - many sites and blogs have been devoted to this subject, but I thought I'd add one as I frequently get questions from relatives, friends, and colleagues. Being intrinsically lazy, I hate to do (or say or write) things twice so I decided to post their questions and the solutions here. Thanks for visiting; I hope some of the information proves useful to you!

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Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Help! I'm an avid Avast! user but now it tells me it's about to expire. I thought it was free?
It was, and is, for personal use, and the program isn't expiring: the virus signatures database updates are about to expire.

The virus signatures database contains information that enables Avast! to detect viruses. Since new viruses are spread more often than anyone would like, this signature database needs to be updated with the new umm signatures. You may have noticed that every now and again Avast! tells you it has updated its database.

The authors provide this excellent software for free, and I guess they do wish to be aware of the number of computers on which their product is running. That's why you need to renew your registration every year - it's free.

Renewing your registration can be done in two ways, depending on the version of the software you're using:

If you see a little orange ball in the system tray (in the lower right corner of your desktop), you're using the most recent version and renewing your registration is a piece of cake. Just click the balloon that contains the warning, and you'll be taken to a window where you can enter the necessary.

If the Avast! icon is a little blue ball, you're using an older version. Why not upgrade to the most recent one, which really is the best option? The registration process for the older version is a bit more difficult so why bother if with the same effort you can get the latest and greatest! (As you could have guessed: it's still free :)